


snap out of it

by arsenicjay



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Awkward Dates, Developing Relationship, Library, M/M, Secret Santa, oikageweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 10:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2847176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arsenicjay/pseuds/arsenicjay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Oikawa walked into the library on the first day, he hadn’t been expecting to see Kageyama studying hard in the middle of the room. By the last day, he was frankly getting kind of sick of it. </p><p>For Oikageweek Secret Santa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	snap out of it

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mirinoes](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=mirinoes).



> This is my Oikageweek Secret Santa gift for mirinoes! From her requests, I took ‘library AU’ (although it’s a little more like a library situation in canon than AU…) and added a subtle dash of 'protective/jealous Oikawa.' It's set between Chapter 83 and the Summer Training Camp arc from the manga. I hope you enjoy this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it! 
> 
> And if anyone is interested, I wrote this entire story listening to Arctic Monkey’s AM Album and I think it reflects the intended mood of the fic quite well - the title is from one of the album songs.

Oikawa blinks. Glances around, then refocuses and blinks again.

“Well, well,” he says under his breath, narrowing his eyes.

Seated at one of the rickety old tables, head bent over an enormous pile of books and fingers drumming an incessantly loud rhythm throughout the otherwise silent library, was none other than Kageyama Tobio. Possibly the least likely person Oikawa had expected to see here.

Most definitely the least likely person Oikawa actually _wanted_ to see here, more like. All he wanted was a book for his history essay. A couple of books and no random chance encounters with his least liked person in Japan.

Well, second least liked person. First place would have to go to Ushijima.

Like it always does.

 _Goddammit_ , Oikawa thinks irritably, scowling a hole into Kageyama’s blissfully unaware back. Now he’s too pissed off to think about his history essay, much less try to get past Kageyama in a somewhat unconfrontational manner.  

His scowl deepens when he notices Kageyama’s head starting to nod, jerking up every few seconds to stare at his books before drooping down again.

What a ridiculous idiot. He’ll never learn anything like that.

Oikawa abruptly turns on his heel and stalks out of the library, the mood for doing anything remotely productive evaporating faster than he could walk.

He ends up spending the rest of the day serving volleyballs into the crooked tree behind his house, childishly imagining Kageyama and Ushijima’s face as alternating targets.

It only makes him feel marginally better.

\---

Oikawa goes to the library again the next day, because that assignment is actually due in less than a week and he really needs to get a start on it if he wants to hand it in on time, regardless of his fuming.

He groans when he sees Kageyama at the same table as before, still poring hopelessly over an even thicker book than yesterday, this time scribbling down notes in a little exercise book to his right.

It probably was a bit too much to hope that Kageyama wouldn’t be there, though exactly when Kageyama turned into an academic is beyond him. He had always been a bit lost when it came to booksmarts back in Kitagawa Daichi; too often Oikawa would catch him stuffing his papers back into his bag after changing in the locker rooms, most marked with a glaring red ‘C’. Every other time it would be an ‘F’ and Oikawa would snicker unkindly as Kageyama hastily tried to hide them from view.

They probably weren’t letting him slack off with his marks at Karasuno and holding volleyball practice over his head, Oikawa reasons. It’s the only plausible reason for Kageyama to be willingly doing his homework when he could be outside playing volleyball instead.

Oikawa on the other hand, doesn’t slack off from the onset. Which brings him back to the present; trying to find resources so he can start that essay. Which means sneaking past Kageyama.

After a quick moment of debate, Oikawa heaves a sigh and supposes there’s nothing really for it - the section he wants is on the other side of Kageyama and the only way to get there is to walk in front of Kageyama. What a pain.

Maybe Kageyama won’t notice him.

Oikawa banks on that thought, walking past as quietly as he can but the moment he sees Kageyama’s eyes dart towards him and widen in surprise, he knows it was another foundless hope. Expecting a setter to not notice any movement in an otherwise still room - if he were on court, Oikawa would be appalled at himself.

“Oikawa-san!” Kageyama blurts out, loud and obtrusive as normal. Though he catches his mistake and with a surreptitious glance around the room for any annoyed ‘ _shhh_ ’s, he repeats in a lowered voice, “Oikawa-san. What are you doing here?”

Oikawa hmphs, letting a note of distaste slide into his voice and counters. “What are you doing here. Last time I remember, you couldn’t care less if you got C’s or F’s or whatever it is you get these days.”

It’s a petty hail back to those moments in the locker room, and as expected, Kageyama flushes an embarrassed red. His hand is gripping his pen hard, and Oikawa can see that he’s only got half a page of notes down, with little volleyball doodles all along the margin. And he’s only on the first page of the chapter in his textbook.

Kageyama mumbles his response and Oikawa raises an expectant eyebrow. “You can speak a little louder Tobio, even if you did yell in the library about half a minute ago.”

The scowl directed toward him is only half hearted and Kageyama mutters an audible response this time. “I gotta pass these exams or I can’t do the summer training camp.”

Bingo. Oikawa knew the motivation had to be at least a tiny bit volleyball related, and it looks like he was right on the ball.

Ball heh.

“Well, good luck!” Oikawa tells him breezily, not meaning the slightest bit of it at all. “I’m going to go find books to help me maintain my excellent grades.”

That earns him another scowl from Kageyama and it’s so self-satisfying that Oikawa nearly skips right past the section he was looking for.

\---

At the library for the third day in a row, Oikawa can’t help but feel a little ticked off. Not because the books he selected and borrowed yesterday were little more than useless with regard to his essay subject, but because he’d have to see Kageyama _again_.

Three days in a row. Just how unlucky could he get?

He wanders in through the doors cautiously this time, peering into the dimly lit room. Ah there he was. Same table as the past two days.

Although this time, sprawled across the desk with arms carelessly slung under his head and most definitely asleep.

Oikawa eases into the library, padding over the carpeted floor as quietly as he could. He stops just in front of Kageyama’s desk, crosses his arms and stares. Kageyama is in a deep sleep, if judging by the way he snuffles into his papers is any indication. His breath fans over across his hair, making the longest strands waver with every soft exhale.

Already Oikawa can feel his face twitch into a scowl just looking at him.

What was he studying anyway? Oikawa leans over to take a proper look at Kageyama’s spread books. Biology it seemed. Something about cell structure and components. Ah wait, now what was this-

Oikawa wants to snort in disbelief as he flips close the cover of Kageyama’s textbooks only to find a poorly hidden volleyball magazine under it, with significantly more highlighting and underlining than any of his other notes.

Typical. Well if Kageyama wanted to skive off studying and miss out on summer training camp, who was Oikawa to stop him?

With that happy thought in mind, Oikawa wanders off to the history section and starts browsing through the books again, at least this time knowing what he was specifically looking for.

By the time he peeks back around the end of the shelves, Kageyama is awake again though only barely, rubbing his eyes tiredly as he flips his textbook back open with a pout of confusion.

Oikawa mutters some choice curse words under his breath. He’d been hoping to escape without Kageyama’s attention but it was too late for that now.

He grabs his books into a pile and strides out past Kageyama. Maybe if he walks fast enough, Kageyama won’t bother-

“Oikawa-san!”

The same loud, surprised tone as yesterday. Does this kid never learn?

When Oikawa turns to Kageyama with an exasperated sigh, Kageyama has his hands clapped over his mouth, eyes darting around to see if anyone is about to scold him. Not likely, seeing as the librarian was on the other side of the building.

“What are you doing here? Uh, again?” Kageyama asks him in a stage whisper.

Really, this kid is hilarious. Except not at all.

Oikawa just gestures at his books, and taps his foot, trying to communicate that he was impatient to get going. But of course, this is Kageyama and Kageyama is oblivious as a rock to any and all social cues. Which is why the next words Oikawa hears are:

“Wait, Oikawa-san. Can you- could you please- ah,” Kageyama coughs, as if it pains him to get the words out of his throat. “Could you please hel- help me?”

Oikawa just stares at him. “Excuse you?”

“I can’t understand this bit,” Kageyama grinds out, stabbing a cell diagram on the page with his pen. “I’ve been trying since yesterday.”

“Are you actually stupid?”

“...no?”

“Alright, bye.”

Oikawa turns, fully intending to walk off but then Kageyama yells “Oikawa-san, wait!” and it’s so _loud_ and _rude_ that Oikawa has half a mind to turn back and lecture Kageyama about library etiquette.

But he doesn’t notice the fallen textbook just in front of his feet and then he’s suddenly crashing to the ground, his own books flying into the air and when he comes to, Kageyama is peering at him over the edge of the table with a look of horror and concern.

Oikawa pulls the offending textbook out from under his back - it’s a biology textbook and he seethes as Kageyama’s face drains of blood.

“Don’t say anything,” Oikawa says darkly, wincing as he pulls himself to his knees and starts gathering up his scattered books.

To his surprise, Kageyama gets up off his chair and walks around the table to help Oikawa pick up his books. Oikawa stares at him suspiciously for a second but mentally shrugs and continues. It’s not his business when Kageyama decides to act like a decent human being.

Even if it was his textbook that Oikawa tripped over.

When Kageyama hands him back his books, Oikawa cringes at the hopeful look on his face and wonders if he can run out without hearing the words to ensue, but it’s to no avail when Kageyama asks, “So will you help me?”

Oikawa looks down at the books Kageyama has in his hand, pulls them away from him and tells him a very haughty, “No.”

He doesn’t stay long enough to see Kageyama’s reaction. Honestly, he’s never really enjoyed seeing disappointment in other people’s faces.

It’s too much like looking into a mirror.

\---

This time he doesn’t have to go back to the library until the day after his essay is due, and he hums happily as he slides his books into the returns slot just inside the building. It isn’t until he turns around to leave that he sees Kageyama’s familiar form hunched over his books and remembers that he’s already seen Kageyama three times this week.

Which is far too often to be frank.

But Oikawa is in a good mood today, one of those moods that Iwaizumi would click his tongue at and mutter something like _what a pain_ , so he wanders over to pester Kageyama. But when he gets close, it’s obvious that Kageyama is once again, fast asleep.

Glancing down at Kageyama’s open page, he’s only half surprised to see it’s at the same page as the last time Oikawa saw him. Still trying to figure out cell structure huh.

Oikawa wonders if Kageyama’s asked anyone else to help him. What an unfortunate kid, if Oikawa is his first and only source of help.

Well sure, he had stopped and listened to Kageyama when he was asking about letting Hinata spike on his own. But really, tutoring and volleyball advice are two completely different things.

Oikawa sits himself on the table next to Kageyama, but the motion alerts the other boy and Kageyama suddenly jerks up, blinking blearily and fumbling for his pen. It takes him a few seconds to notice Oikawa next to him, and his expression turns into a bizarre mixture of surprise and apprehension.

“What are you doing here, Oika- ” Kageyama starts in a hesitant tone but Oikawa jabs down at his notes and smoothly cuts him off with, “You got this part wrong.”

“What?”

“Look at the textbook properly you idiot.”

A pause.

“Oh.”

Scribbling noises.

“And you got this wrong too.”

Kageyama furrows his brow as he crosses out more of his notes and rewrites them according to where Oikawa is pointing in his textbook.

“And here. And here. And this too. No, copy down this bit.”

Kageyama looks awfully confused, probably still half asleep and wondering why on earth Oikawa had appeared out of the blue to fix his notes, but he dutifully follows Oikawa’s advice.

Actually, Oikawa isn’t so sure why he’s helping Kageyama. All he intended to do was point out his mistakes and gloat.

In the end he stays for fifteen minutes, impatiently directing Kageyama through this chapter of his textbook. When he gets up to go, Kageyama is still flipping through the chapter in slight awe. Probably achieved more today than he had hoped for in his wildest dreams, Oikawa thinks snidely.

“Thank you, Oikawa-san,” Kageyama says suddenly and he rises from his chair, bowing low as Oikawa straightens his jacket.

“You need all the help you can get,” Oikawa retorts though it’s a little pathetic and he hopes it at least disguises the fact that he had started off with no intention of helping Kageyama and now look what happened. And for good measure, he adds, “Stupid kohai.”

Kageyama must agree with that to some level, as he doesn’t respond otherwise, just straightens up and watches Oikawa.

“You owe me,” Oikawa announces. “You can pay me back by losing the next match we have.”

Kageyama frowns. “I can’t do that- ”

Honestly, this boy. Oikawa grinds his teeth a little. He can’t say _don’t worry about it_ , because as if Oikawa is going to play the magnanimous senpai in this situation, but that means Kageyama is in his debt when Oikawa really doesn’t want any more to do with him.

“Find some other way then,” Oikawa finally says, and he stalks out of the library.

\---

It turns out that was the wrong thing to say. That’s all Oikawa can think when he wakes up on Saturday with his mother yelling up through the house that there was someone waiting downstairs to see him, and he tiredly makes his way into the living room only to see Kageyama quietly sitting on one of the plush sofas holding two cups of Starbucks coffee.

For a few seconds Oikawa just gapes at the sight of Tobio in his house, still registering that yes, Tobio was actually in his house (how did he know where Oikawa _lived_?) and then all he can do is splutter uselessly.

“Oikawa-san, hi- ” Kageyama starts to stand up, and then hurriedly sits back down when Oikawa storms over to him.

“What are you _doing here_?” Oikawa asks instead, in a harsh whisper.

Kageyama looks down at the two cups he’s holding, and then looks back up at Oikawa with a confused expression. “I’m paying you back?”

“Don’t say it like a question!”

“...sorry is this not enough? I can buy you breakfast too.”

“You’re missing the point!”

By now Oikawa has worked himself up enough to start tugging at his own hair. He’s dimly aware that he’s still in his pyjamas, which really only consist of boxers and a loose singlet. And he probably still has pillow marks across his face. Not a good look.

“Tooru, is this your friend? Why don’t you introduce him?” His mother comes around the corner, wiping her hands on her apron and Oikawa is ready to scream something loud and incoherent that will probably get him a scolding later.

He needs to get Tobio out of the house as soon as he can or his mother will start trying to busybody any information she can get out of him about Oikawa, and god, what if Kageyama gets asked to stay for breakfast?

Oikawa might die.

“No, he’s not my friend; Tobio-chan, stay right here, don’t touch anything don’t move, I’ll be back in a minute. Mother, don’t talk to him,” Oikawa says in a rush as he sprints upstairs again.

In the background he hears his mother’s voice floating up behind him, “Goodness, that boy can be so rude sometimes. Sorry- Tobio, was it? Nice to meet you.”

He throws his clothes on in a flash, smooths his hair back as best as he can then runs back downstairs to grab Kageyama by the arm and haul him out much to his mother’s protests. Kageyama looks hilariously bewildered, but really what was he thinking just popping over to Oikawa’s house out of the blue?

The next thing Oikawa knows, they’re both sitting in a small cafe in the town centre, one of the only ones that are open in the morning for breakfast and Kageyama is fiddling with his fork as they both wait for their order.

What was Oikawa thinking? _What had he been thinking?_

Out loud he says, “I am an idiot.”

Kageyama looks up at that, quizzically tilting his head. “I don’t- ”

“That wasn’t an invitation to start talking, Tobio-chan,” Oikawa remarks and Kageyama wisely shuts up.

They spend the next few minutes in silence, Oikawa impatiently drumming his fingers on the table surface while Kageyama twirls his napkin around his knife, and then his fork.

Somehow between dragging Kageyama out of his house and heading back home alone to catch up on his neglected sleep in, Kageyama had coerced Oikawa into joining him for breakfast. Or at least, accepting breakfast as payment for helping Kageyama study yesterday.

Oikawa blames the fact that he had still been at least half asleep and therefore not fully in his right mind when he agreed.

Also he’s a little hungry and hey, a free meal is a free meal right?

(It’s a poor excuse and Oikawa imagines that somewhere a few blocks away, Iwaizumi must be laughing his head off at Oikawa’s predicament.)

They eat in silence when their orders finally arrive, Kageyama getting something that looked like pancakes with a truly obscene amount of whipped cream on top and Oikawa settling with just a regular omelette and toast. They’re some of the only customers in the cafe and the silence is so awkward and painful that Oikawa eventually tries to strike up a conversation out of sheer desperation.

“Where’s your summer training camp?”

Kageyama stops mid chew, looking unattractively surprised that Oikawa had deigned to say something to him. “Tokyo.”

His reply is somewhat muffled by the ridiculous amount of pancake and cream in his mouth, and Oikawa twists his face in mild disgust.

“Who with?”

Kageyama shrugs and keeps shovelling food into his mouth. Oikawa grumbles. “I’m trying to hold a conversation here. Have you heard of that? Holding a conversation? Is there _anything_ in here or just volleyball?”

Oikawa leans forward to rap Kageyama’s forehead and Kageyama jerks back with a start, going hilariously cross-eyed to stare at where Oikawa’s knuckles are touching him.

“You want me to talk now?”

“Oh don’t get cheeky, Tobio-chan,” Oikawa says blithely, sitting back in his seat. “Yes, I want you to talk now. Consider this part of your payment.”

Kageyama continues munching for a few moments, although looking a little more thoughtful now. He swallows and Oikawa prepares himself for whatever wise words of volleyball wisdom Kageyama might manage to mutter out-

“You used to talk to me when we were at Kitagawa Daichi,” Kageyama says frankly, watching Oikawa. “Now you don’t. Why?”

Oikawa stares at him. His fork is halfway to his own mouth and the other hand is loosely holding his knife, but they’re both frozen in place. “What?”

“I mean, you were never nice to me,” Kageyama concedes, again talking between mouthfuls of chewed pancake. “But you didn’t ignore me the way you do now.”

Oikawa struggles to find an answer and stalls for time by eating another forkful of egg. Eventually he just shrugs and says, “We’re not teammates anymore. We don’t even go to the same school.”

Kageyama just hums. He’d somehow managed to order just a plain glass of milk too, and he drains it empty, leaving him with a milk moustache.

“I need to piss,” Oikawa says, and he pushes away from the table.

Inside the bathroom, Oikawa stares into the mirror while he washes his hands. He feels uncharacteristically bad. Almost guilty. Even though he really has no reason to be.

Everything he said was true after all. They’re not teammates anymore, they don’t go to the same school. It’s not like they were friends to begin with. And now they’re practically rivals. There’s absolutely no reason for him to be nice to Kageyama.

When he leaves the washroom, brushing his damp hands against his pants, he overhears Kageyama’s voice and pauses behind the corner. Peering around, there’s another tall guy standing next to their table - the tall, gangly blonde from the Karasuno team.

“Really? You finished all of it?” says the blonde, with an eyebrow raised.

“Yes,” Kageyama replies. His expression is stony, more closed off than it ever is when he’s with Oikawa. Still, he reaches into his bag and grabs a notebook Oikawa recognises from yesterday, and stiffly hands it to the other boy. “Be quick, Tsukishima.”

Tsukishima snorts but flips through the notebook anyway, expression turning into grudging impression as he presumably scans through Kageyama’s notes.

“Well,” Tsukishima finally says as he gingerly hands the book back to Kageyama, who snatches it and ungracefully stuffs it back into his bag. “I was starting to worry that the genius King wasn’t such a genius after all, but you’ve proved me wrong. You’ve done better than Hinata at least. I have to wonder though, how come you’re alright with biology but piss poor at everything else?”

Kageyama growls at him, hands clenching into fists underneath the table. But eventually, he admits with no small amount of reluctance, “I had some help.”

For some reason, that line has Tsukishima bursting out into incredulous laughter. “You? Asking for help? It practically killed you to ask me for help. Actually, Hinata did most of the asking. You must’ve been really desperate. My, how the King has fallen.”

Kageyama’s face hardens into a furious scowl, hands flexing in his lap and the muscle in his thighs bunching as he prepares to stand up but Oikawa is moving forward before he realises; suddenly, he’s standing in front of Tsukishima, who startles with a half turn.

“Hello!” Oikawa says brightly, giving a condescending little wave. He’s managed to plaster a wide smile on his face, but for some reason, he’s seething internally.

“You’re the setter from Aoba Jousai…” Tsukishima says in realisation, trailing off as he glances back to Kageyama. “Really? Breakfast with him?”

Kageyama opens his mouth to retort, no doubt with something childish and hopeless as always so Oikawa decides to do him a favour and cuts in, “Tobio-chan is at liberty to have breakfast with whoever he wants.”

“Well- ”

“And right now, he’s having breakfast with me, not you. So shoo,” Oikawa finishes as he slides back into his chair and picks up his fork and knife again with an expectant look on his face.

Tsukishima stares at them, clearly confused but ends up walking off with a muttered “Troublesome.”

Oikawa shovels another piece of omelette into his mouth and chews angrily. He knows Kageyama is staring at him, no doubt just as confused as his teammate, but Oikawa really doesn’t feel like explaining when he himself has no clue what just happened, so he grouchily tells Kageyama “Finish your stupid pancakes,” and continues to tear into his own omelette.

He pretends not to hear Kageyama’s quiet “Thanks.”

\---

Really, Oikawa had expected things to end there. Have Kageyama pay for their breakfast, get himself out of debt and then part ways never to have to talk to each other again. That would’ve been ideal. Absolutely perfect in fact.

He didn’t expect them to end up at the park, with Kageyama idly tossing a volleyball he had somehow managed to fish out of his bag (seriously, how had it even fit in there?) as they sit on a bench with another awkward silence.

They watch people walk past for a few long minutes, and Oikawa is just about ready to break the silence and beg off home when Kageyama suddenly pipes up, “Do you want to prac- ”

“No,” snaps Oikawa, crossing his arms and Kageyama falls into a subdued silence. But Oikawa can’t stop sneaking glances to the ball in Kageyama’s hands and eventually he mutters, “Fine, just give it- ”

He snatches the ball out of Kageyama’s startled grip, throws it from where he stands and launches into a jump serve that sends the ball flying to the other side of the park. Almost immediately he’s jogging after it, not bothering to look back at Kageyama’s reaction.

Soon enough, he hears the pitter-patter of Kageyama’s steps behind him and puffed breath, and Oikawa throws the ball again and serves it in another direction before running off to follow it, leaving Kageyama behind.

Honestly, he's not sure why he's doing this.

Some part of him tells him he's just trying to avoid Kageyama in the most childish way possible; the other half vehemently denies it and insists that any volleyball practice is good practice. It repeats for another couple of cycles, Kageyama getting frustrated enough to try slapping the ball out of his hands, but Oikawa is still too quick to be caught.

But then Oikawa spikes the ball past a downward slope, and he runs after it before realising that he's going too fast for the decline. His legs go out under him and he ends up tumbling painfully down the grassy knoll to land in a sprawled heap at the bottom. He lies there just breathing for a blissful few seconds before another blurred figure comes careening down on top of him, knocking the air out of his lungs.

Figures Tobio would make the same mistake and fall down the slope too.

There's an elbow in his mouth and Oikawa spits it out before grumbling, "Get off, stupid."

A groan and awkward shifting, then the weight moves off his chest and Kageyama is scrambling to grab the wayward volleyball. It's too late to escape again. Oikawa just flops back down, too tired and confused, too early in the morning.

He has no idea what's going on. No idea what he's doing. What Kageyama is doing.

Actually Kageyama is crouched over his ball like he's afraid someone else might take it and it's so hideously genuine that Oikawa wants to laugh in his face, but he can't summon the energy.

Kageyama looks like he's about to speak, and Oikawa wants to tell him not to, but he doesn't.

Instead, he lets Kageyama tell him in a quiet voice, “I admire your jump serve,” and Oikawa just watches him, expression carefully blank and giving nothing away.

It’s just an honest remark, coming from Kageyama. Because Kageyama has always been straight forward and blunt, no tact or decorum whatsoever unlike Oikawa. Oikawa could twist the same words into meaning a thousand different things, and place them all behind a beguiling smile. Praise wrapped around a core of spite and bitterness.

_That Kageyama, he’s a genius. A prodigy setter._

Kageyama crosses his legs where he sits and studies his volleyball, turning it over and over in his hands. “I admired you, in Kitagawa Daichi. I wanted to be like you, good at volleyball.”

Oikawa doesn’t miss the past tense in his statement and it twists something cold into his stomach.

But Kageyama doesn’t say anything more than that, even when Oikawa resigns to giving him an expectant look to spur him on. When that doesn’t work, Oikawa grits out, “Well? And? What, is that all you’re going to say?”

Kageyama looks startled, turning to Oikawa with bewilderment on his face. “What?”

Really? Was he really just planning to leave it there?

Whatever, Oikawa gives up with this boy. There is nothing in that brain, absolutely nothing. If he grabbed Kageyama and shook him, all he’d probably hear are volleyballs rattling around inside his skull.

“Honestly Tobio-chan,” Oikawa says with a defeated sigh. “How you get through daily life is a mystery to me. An absolute, complete and utter mystery.”

“...what?”

“Don’t just set up for a big announcement when you’ve got no follow up, you moron. That’s just rude.”

“I don’t- I don’t understand- ”

“For example, you could’ve been ready to confess your secret middle school crush on me back there, Tobio-chan. That would’ve been a perfect set up, considering you just took me out on a date.”

“Huh? What? What date?” Kageyama is steadily looking more and more confused, red dusting his cheekbones at the word ‘date.’

“I give up.” Oikawa groans, loud and long. “I give up, I give up, I give up!”

He stands up, ready to shout his complete and utter exasperation to the world (or at least, just the random Saturday morning park goers), when Kageyama suddenly says in a hesitant voice, “I did though. Have a crush on you.”

That’s enough to have Oikawa freeze to a standstill, staring down at Kageyama as if his volleyball has suddenly replaced his actual head. “What?”

“I had a crush on you, at Kitagawa Daichi,” Kageyama says, as if it’s no big deal. But he’s refusing to look at Oikawa, staring intently at his volleyball instead.

“...you know I wasn’t being serious about you confessing to me, right?”

“Oh.”

“...are you actually stupid? Oh my god, I give up. Again.”

Kageyama is scowling now, trying to squash the volleyball between his palms. Oikawa feels strangely giddy, a weird sort of warmth bubbling up where Kageyama’s words had first twisted cold.

It starts as a mirth that tickles at his lips, and then he’s smiling, grinning when he watches Kageyama furrow his brow. But it gets warmer and warmer until there’s laughter, genuine laughter spilling from his lips and pouring out of his mouth, and then he’s bent in half, clutching his stomach as he gasps with the force of his amusement.

He’s not sure why he’s laughing so hard. But he is, and it feels good.

In the end, Kageyama snaps him out of his laughing fit with a hesitant, “Um, Oikawa-san are you alright?” and Oikawa eventually wipes the involuntary tears from his eyes.

“You are…” Oikawa waves his arm around, trying to think of something adequate to say. But nothing comes to mind and he just finishes with a lame, “You’re something, Tobio-chan.”

“I’m a what- mmph!”

Oikawa leans in quickly and kisses Kageyama on his open lips; a short peck that could be construed as friendly if it weren’t for the location. Kageyama’s lips are soft and yielding, a strange contrast to his personality but Oikawa doesn’t linger long.

He pulls away and Kageyama’s hand flies to touch his own lips, expression caught somewhere between aghast and curious.

“Consider your tutoring fees paid in full,” Oikawa tells him off-handedly, as he turns to walk away. “Use summer training camp time well alright? Give me a challenge so I can enjoy beating your ass at our next match.”

Kageyama doesn’t reply, and if he nods or shakes his head or pulls a frown - Oikawa has no clue.

He supposes it doesn’t really matter at this point anyway.

Right now, Oikawa is still the better player. The better setter, the smarter strategist. The infinitely better team player.

(And when that changes? When they both change?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Well, Oikawa will figure it out then.)

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve never written a ‘softer’ kind of relationship between Oikawa and Kageyama, so this was a bit of a challenge. In my mind at least, at this point in time Kageyama is still a bit too young for a proper relationship with Oikawa. The interest is there, but the maturity for them to really ‘click’ is still developing. I’d like to think that Oikawa waits for Kagz to grow up a little~ 
> 
> Any comments or constructive criticism is always appreciated.


End file.
